I'm so tired of this battle! Feed suggestions?

So I am happy to report that after MONTHS of packing Jynx with food, she's slowly starting to gain weight. I'm still not happy, she's carrying a nice summer weight now but not what I like to see in our bitter -4o winters. She's gained about 50+ pounds and is back around 1000lbs.

In summer, I had to feed her myself so I scrambled out everyday to give her roughly 1 pound of dry beet pulp (soaked), 3 pounds of alfalfa pellets and 3 pounds of Cool Command. Which is a LOT of food for one seating and took her forever to eat.

I got her a box stall as soon as I could, which she's been in the last few months. Unfortunately, we have VERY limited service where I board. They can barely handle feeding and watering, much less complex feeding plans. Due to the cold, I altered her feed to 3 pounds of Cool Command morning and night (6 pounds total). It didn't seem to help, so I finally turned to my tried and true best friend - sweet feed. I don't care what anyone says, it's always done the job. I started her on 1.5 pounds morning and night and didn't see a difference so upped her to 3 pounds morning and night (6 pounds total). Again, a LOT of food.

So she's FINALLY gained the weight I want to see. This mare has free choice hay and water all day long, and at night she gets about 10 pounds of a GOOD alfalfa mix. She's UTD on proper rotational deworming and just had her teeth done in spring. I don't understand why this is such a battle!

Anyway, the sweet feed has made her go LOCO. My dear Jynxy has turned into a bomb. She's still her sweet self, but due to the small paddock she's in, she simply doesn't get enough "energy burn" time. Our rides are less then productive as we spend half of them just trying to get her to settle - she's not being mean, she's just FULL of herself and having trouble concentrating.

Sorry for the novel - any suggestions? I have a million ideas, but unfortunately I simply can't trust the staff to handle anything more complicated then BASIC stuff - I'd love to get a good oil into her, but I highly doubt they can handle it. :roll: Now that she's gained some weight, I've cut her sweet feed back to 3 pounds total daily cut into two feedings.

Anybody else have any luck with a basic feed? Or should I look at maybe just upping her Cool Command? It's a complete feed so you can feed a lot more daily, a lot safer, then a grain like sweet feed. Thanks guys!

Have you tried rice bran and alfamo?
My horse lost weight and the vet told me to feed her for lbs of rice brand,alfalfa cubs,alfamo,or alfalfa pellets...She has gained a lot of weight...I had to cut back on some. What kind of hay do you have..do you know the quality? Is cool command the same as cool calories?
Does canada have LMF feed?

I thought about keeping her on the alfalfa pellets, but for some reason I'm SUPER leery about feeding them without any water based feed y'know? They're SO dusty and hard, and they only get a partial bucket of water at night because everything freezes within hours! Have you had any problems feeding them straight?

Rice bran is a definite possibility, I've never used that before. What is alfamo?

The outdoor hay is fairly lousy quality. It's a round bale of grass hay, so I doubt it has a a whole lot of nutrients but it means she can munch to her content for about 8 hours in a day. The hay inside is MUCH better, we've fed this alfalfa mix to our herd and actually we were able to keep Jynx fat and sassy feeding nothing but this hay last year when she was outdoors and with no blanket! They come in big square bales, and each flake is about 20-25lbs and each horse gets a half flake. This has recently changed so I'm REALLY hoping this hay helps her to!

Cool Command is a low starch complete feed. I imagine it would be the same as Cool Calories.

What is LMF?

Rice bran is fantastic! It's high in fat and makes them gain weight and it's gentle on their stomach. I never tried alfalfa pellets but I have done alfalfa cubes and I would break them up..I would feed a small/medium sized mixing bowl of it 2x a day. The bag would last me a week and a half to 2 weeks. I decided to try alfalmo instead and like it a whole lot more...it's candy for horses basically and get's them a bit hyper and spunky but makes them fat. It's alfalfa that is ground up and has molasses in it. I actually tasted it..it's good but then has a nasty flavor,lol..horses like it! I give Gidget 2-3 lb cup of it..WE have these one lb cups and I just fill it up to a lb.
LMF is a brand of feed. They have a great line of products. I was going to suggest gentle balance but it is expensive..it's almost $30 a bag..also they have LMF gold...it's a sweet feed and very sticky.

I talked to my vet and they think beet pulp is a waste of time and that rice bran is better for them anyways...beet pulp takes forever to soak and rice bran you don't have to soak.

Ok thanks! I will look into rice bran!

We originally tried feeding them alfalfa cubes and they wouldn't eat it - period. I suppose she'd get used to it eventually, but that "breaking up" part is too complex for the feed crew. :roll:

I'll give rice bran a try! It's getting so expensive to feed her, it's really hurting the wallet - it's $440 for board on two horses but I'm paying $150 a month to feed Jynx!

Rice bran should do the trick...over here it's like $10 and a quarter I believe for 50lb bag..it was cheaper but darn prices went up.

I probably spend $30 a month of feed max :P

Oh and that's jus the grain stuff..not the hay and her GI conditioner

Can you get rice bran at most feed stores? Or do I need to buy it specifically elsewhere?

You can get it at any feed store.

They come in little pellet form

Hmmm..... What brands of feed can you get?

Farnam Platform Senior feed has a lower NSC level of 16%, so that should be less "fizzy" energy than the sweet feed. Triple Crown's Senior is at about 12%. Legends Performance Pelleted feed is about 13% NSC.

Can you go back to the Cool Command, but increase the alfalfa mix hay? In moderate work, a 1,000 lb horse should be getting up to 9 lbs of the cool command feed, so you could increase it to 4 lbs per-feeding.